Halo Lagacy
by Lasair Nova
Summary: The Master Chief is woken up from cryo-sleep onboard the Dawn by an old foe, but is he still his enemy? Find out. Read & Review Please. Rated M for language and violence.
1. Authors note

**Authors note **

The first part of Awakening was actually written by a friend of mine (I would link to the orignial copy but its not up any more, sorry) but I do have permission to use this story.

Everything after Awakening (pt 1) is mine and I take full credit for those pieces, _not_ Awakening (pt 1)


	2. Awakening pt 1

Halo Legacy

Chapter 1

Awakening

He noticed a sudden change in his environment. His mind started a short struggle against the urge to open his eyes but the next second it accepted his will.  
The first thing he saw was a heavily blurred Violet glow on the helmet's glass just before his face. Slowly his body activated itself, booting the advanced parts of his brain what made him rub his eyes – or try to because his hand's movement was suddenly stopped by the helmet.  
"John?"  
The Voice sounded careful, silent and all above damped. He was certain he knew it but…  
Someone groped for the helmet's release controls located by the sides of his Neck. The Hand was everything but certainly not human.  
"So. This is the one that brought so much death in our rows… and saved us all by doing it."  
This second voice was rough and John noticed that it was not used a lot to pronounce words in a human Language, "The Master Chief…"  
With a hissing voice the helmet went off John's face and his eyes focused two Persons standing right besides him. The violet glow, he noticed, came from a life – sized hologram of Cortana, the AI that traveled with him quite some time. Her face showed sorrow and a tad of fear what made John look for the second Person.  
The golden amour's highlights gleamed in the shallow light emerging from the light teal sword on the Arbiter's side.  
The Master Chief's body made a rough movement and the Elite answered with a soothing gesture.  
"Do not fear. The time when we could afford being enemies are long past. Let me aid you."  
The Alien Soldier grabbed the Chief by his shoulders and helped him to a sitting position.  
"Now explain…", the Spartan suddenly coughed up, "Why the hell am I so fucked up?!"  
Cortana grabbed his hand and he was absolutely startled how she even could – she was a Hologram!  
"Well… the Energy systems of the ship will experience complete failure in two minutes so we had to wake you faster than usual. It's my entire fault! I should have been more on my guard…"  
"There is no time for that, Artificial! Help me bringing him to our Ship. Do you think you can Walk?"  
"I doubt it.", Cortana said silently but the Master Chief rose easily.  
"Do not forget your Head Protection.", the Covenant warrior said, "The Atmosphere on our ship can get dangerous for your Kind."  
"One Minute left. We should hurry now.", Cortana warned.  
Grabbing his Helmet the Master Chief followed the two of them. His mind was drowned in confusion and if his mouth would have been able to he would have asked questions all the way to the damaged airlock where some grunts waited for their leader to arrive. They shared a short conversation and then proceeded into the shuttle.

"This Grunt will show you to your Room, the atmosphere there has been adjusted to meet your body's requirements. Also feel free to take a walk around the ship. When you are hungry… well that's a bit of a problem but I guess we will figure out how to reprogram our synthesizers with the Artificial's help."  
"Would you please stop calling me that? I have a …"  
"Silence, Artificial. Stop demanding more than you are."  
Cortana swallowed her next words to avoid an argument. After the Covenant mounted her Program on a modified portable Shakal Shield Generator she felt more real than ever before. She didn't want to loose this feeling again.  
"Arbiter.", the Chief turned around to face the Elite, "If you don't accept her wish do it because I asked you to, will you?"  
"I don't see where AI earns the honor to be talked to like I talk to you, face to face!"  
"But I do. Without her we'd be Flood or dead. She had a huge Part in that little theatre we both acted in."  
"So it wasn't you alone who destroyed the Rings?"  
"She was with me all the time."  
The Elite turned around to face a monitor.  
"Go to your Room now. The Artificial should bring you up to date."

"I don't want to be a brat, that's why I didn't say a thing."  
"I don't want to start a fight with the people who pulled my ass out of that ship as well - but I can't accept that they resist seeing your personality… Is there a shower or something like that?"  
"Around the corner." the grunt answered shyly, "We changed the whole interior after some plans we got from… Cortana"  
She smiled at the little creature.  
"What the hell", John laughed, "Am I a frigging VIP or something like that?"  
"After all you rescued two Races…"  
"Ah don't give me that again!"  
With a laugh the Master Chief started to dissolve his armor.  
"Jesus Christ - it must have been ages since I got rid of that thing the last time… ugh, what a smell. Ah well… see you later."  
The Grunt left the quarter through an energy shield and John vanished to have a shower while Cortana sat down on the bed. Now that her program was updated with sensor routines she could understand that higher level life forms search for physical contact with others. It was such an amazing feeling to dig into the soft blankets, to feel their warmth. With a slight shock she noticed that she really forgot about herself and was completely hidden in the blankets. Very new. Very interesting.  
Suddenly John started singing in the shower and the AI had to bite the blankets to not burst out laughing – it was absolutely horrible.  
After listening for a while she decided to connect to the ship's database to gather information she never took herself the time to earlier. She wanted the Ability to program and use her body now that she had one. Sheer happiness struck her mind as she realized that she could now make sports or play with children. It was a weird thought but since the day Captain Keyes brought his Family to the Pillar of Autumn to show them around, she had wished she could play with those kids. Something caught her Attention and she opened the file.

"Ok Cortana! Now what happened, tell me – I'm curious now.", The Chief said rubbing his hair with a towel.  
"Well… eek! Don't you mind me seeing you like that?!"  
"Um… why? Do you see any parts I should hide?"  
"It's just… I've just read that showing one's chest is…"  
"Haha, only Women, Cortana! I thought you were given such information long ago?"  
"Err… yes… but it looks like I lost some old data on the freeze time in the data store of the ship…"  
"I know that feeling."  
"For our current situation, in short words, we drifted in that godforsaken place for almost five years and got discovered by this Covenant Shuttle's Base Ship. They are more or less stranded as well so they decided to pick us up.


	3. Awakening pt 2

"So they are stuck out here too, what happened to them? A Grunt trip over their power cables?"

"I'm not sure, I haven't had time to interface with the computer and find out."

"Well, what can you tell me off the bat?"

"Earth and all colonels that weren't already glassed are still inhabited, I don't know much else I'm afraid"

The Chief walked over to a view port and looked at the depth of the space beyond, in the distance he could see a silver silhouette, a Covenant carrier the most powerful war ships in the Covenant fleet.

"Cortana, enter the Covenant battle net find out what they are doing this far out."

Cortana inclined her head down as she accessed the net.

"I can't access the battle net for some reason, so I cant tell you what they are doing out here."

Chief walked over to a table in the center of the room to retrieve a set of fresh closes, courtesy of Covenant synthesizers, and look back at Cortana with a rock hard face of anger.

" So they have something to hide from us?" asked the Chief.

"Perhaps I am the only Human left." He said, with discuss in his voice.

"Not quite, alto there are some who would like that to be the truth." Said a voice from the entryway.

Both the Chief And Cortana spun to look where the voice hade come from.

An Elite stood with in the shield barrier that served as a doorway.

Both Chief and Cortana gazed at the new comer for a moment, and then finely Cortana broke the silence.

"Who are you?" she asked trying to sound as polite as possible.

"Or better yet, what do you mean by that!" demanded the Chief.

"One thing at a time. First I am Zadic, I am an Elite scientist and I come with a warning."

"Ok, Zatic" Master Chief began with some sarcasm, "What do you think you need to 'warn' us about?"

"Chief!" Cortana jumped, "He is trying to help us, what do you need to tell us?" Asked Cortana.

"The war, that's what. There is a civil war between the Covenant, and there might be assassins an the command ship who would love to have a shot at you."

"Some assassins? Is that all, ha! I've got nothing to worry about!" The Chief remarked.

"Chief! This is serious, we could find ourselves in another war!"

"You already are." Replied Zadic.

Both Cortana and the Chief exchanged glances.

"What do you mean 'already are'?" Asked Cortana.

"I'll explain, but it's a long story."

"What about an abridged version?" Asked the Chief.

"Even that one is long, but I'll try"

"I might be able to get us started from what the Arbiter told me." Cortana offered.

"Ok, Cortana tell me what you know and Zadic can fill in the peaces." Replied the Chief, with a hint of impatiens in his voice.

"Ok, let me see…" Cortana stared out in to space as if looking for something to cue her to start.

"After the ARC we were declared KIA, the UNSC started to rebuild what they could, but things were pretty bad, there was some hope about six months later when the Covenant retuned to Earth offering an alliance."

"Hold on, are you saying the Covenant and the UNSC are allies?!?" the Chief asked a bit startled.

"In a word, yes, we are." Answered Zadic.

"And this is a good thing?" remarked the Chief.

"Actually it is," Replied Cortana. "The 'new' Covenant was offering technology in exchange of an alliance."

The chief just looked on, now intent on herring the hole story.

"About a year after that the war broke out, Bruits against Elites."

"Actually the Elites were joined by the Hunters and Grunts, while the Jackals and Bruits formed a Confederacy, which declared war on the Covenant." Added Zadic.

"Great, all bronze and no brains. Just how I like em'." Noted the Chief.

"Yes… by the time the war started the UNSC had entire generation of new war ships, complete with shields and hybrid energy weapons. The combined forces of both the UNSC and the Covenant have held the Confederacy at bay."

"So humanity got lots of new tech, and the Covenant got an ally, am I on track so far?" asked the chief.

"Over all, yes." Answered Zadic.

"There is one thing I'm curious about thou, what are 'hybrid energy weapons'?"

"I can answer that." Replied Cortana.

"As you know the UNSC used only projectile weapons, but after getting a look at Covenant energy weapons technology they come up with a way to fuse them together. Essentially it's a projectile with plasma attached to it and ignited after firing."

"It's like getting hit with a plasma bolt with one of your bullets inside it, traveling as fast as the bullet." Zadic simplified.

"Wow, I guess we've missed a lot in five years." Exclaimed the Chief.

"Yes, but that isn't the best part…" Cortana started.

"Halo, we found two more" Interrupted Zadic.

"What!!" Asked the chief with the sliest touch of panic in his voice.

"Don't worry, both your UNSC the Covenant have joint control of them, it was the least we could do after what they did to help us retake them from the Flood."

"Um… what did 'we' do to help you? The Arbiter left that out earlier."

"Oh, of cores you would want to know, they created a biological weapon that has all but wiped out the flood from existence."

"Hold on, don't you thing the Forerunners would have tried that when they were battling the Flood millions of years ago?" asked Cortana.

"Yes, and they did." Answered Zadic. "But on the third Halo we found another Oracle… I mean caretaker of the ring, who was willing to share with us all history on the forerunners battle with the flood."

"Twenty-twenty hind sight." Remarked Chief. "So now we know the major events of the last five years, so how did you get stranded out here?"

"Another advantage of having the UNSC as allies, where we were… what do you call it? Adaptive civilization, you were the creative ones. After the Covenant gave them some of our technology, your people made huge leaps in technology, some of witch they shared with us."

"But why are you out here?" Demanded the Chief.

"UNSC scientists recently developed a new for of slip-space drive, our ship the_ Adventures Youth_ was testing it when it shut down, we haven't been able to get it working yet. And if we don't, even with our normal slip-space drive it will take eighteen months to retune to even the frontier region of Covenant space."

Master Chief turned and looked out the view port at the _Adventures Youth_ now clearly defined against the backdrop of space.

"So, out of the freezer and in to the fire so to speak."

"Perhaps so, but now you have more allies then enemies." Answered Zadic.

All three exchanged glances; the Chief picked up his clothing and went to change, Zadic and Cortana turned to star the ship coming closer, knowing that no one knew what to expect one onboard.

"I have a bad felling about this." Whispered Cortana, but it was apparent that Zadic herd her, for he looked at her and said,

"I know what you mean."


End file.
